PRE-TEST!

CHECK YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1. It is the specific belief or attitudes that 2. It refers to the different rules and
people have or to describe, acts that people regulations that are posited for compliance.
perform.
a. Law
a. Technical Valuation b. Positive Law
b. Aesthetics c. Rules
c. Morals d. Obligations
d. Ethics

3. Refers to judgment of personal approval. 4. What do you call if the person is not
behaving properly?
a. Technical Valuation
b. Aesthetics a. Immoral
c. Morals b. Disobedient
d. Ethics c. Hard Headed
d. All of the above
5. It is the idea that a person’s belief, values Pre-Test Answer Key:
and practices should be understood based on
that person's own culture. 1. C
2. B
a. Cultural Relativism 3. B
b. Culture 4. A
c. Norms 5. A
d. Standard Valuation

Ethics, generally speaking, is about matters

VALUE such as the good thing that we should

pursue and the bad things that we should
avoid; the right ways in which we could or
should act and the wrong ways of acting.

It is about what is acceptable in human

behaviour. KINDS
It may involve obligations that we are OF
expected to fulfil, prohibitions that we are
required to respect, or ideals that we are VALUATION
encouraged to meet
 AESTHETICS
● The judgments or personal approval
or disapproval that we make about
what we see, hear, smell, or taste.
ETIQUETTE
● Concerned with right or wrong
actions, but those might be
considered not quite grave enough
to belong to a discussion on ethics.
ETHICS
& understanding ideal human behavior and
MORALS
● In fact, we often use the word “taste”
to refer to the personal aesthetic
preferences that we have been on
these matters such as “his taste in
music” or “her taste in clothes.”
ETIQUETTE
● To clarify this point, we can differentiate
how I may be displeased seeing a healthy
young man refuse to offer his seat on the
bus to an elderly lady, out of my indignation
and shock would be much greater if I were
to see a man deliberately push another one
out of a moving bus.
ETHICS
● The discipline of studying and
ideal ways of thinking. Thus, ethics is
acknowledged as an intellectual discipline
belonging to philosophy.

ETHICS
● However, acceptable and unacceptable
behaviors are also generally described as
ethical and unethical, respectively.
MORALS
● However, we also have terms such as
“moral judgment” or “moral reasoning”,
which suggests a more intentional
aspect.
DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS
● Study of ethics that reports how people,
particularly groups make their moral
valuation without making any judgment
either for or against these valuations.
MORALS
● Specific beliefs of attitudes that people
have or to describe acts that people
perform. Thus, it is sometimes said that
an individual’s personal conduct is
referred to as his morals, and if he falls
short of behaving properly, this can be
described as immoral.
TWO
TYPES OF
ETHICS
NORMATIVE ETHICS
● Study of ethics, as is often done in
philosophy or moral theology, that
engages the questions: what could or
should be considered the right way of
thinking.

ISSUE, DECISION,
JUDGEMENT, AND DILEMMA
MORAL DECISION
● When one is placed in a situation and
confronted by the choice of what act to
perform.
● For instance, I choose not to take
something I did not pay.
MORAL DILEMMA
● When an individual can choose only one from a
number of possible actions, and there are
compelling ethical reasons for the various
choices.
● For instance, a mother may be conflicted
between wanting to feed her hungry child, but
then recognizing that it would be wrong for her
to steal.
MORAL ISSUE
● Matter of ethics (and not just law) insofar
as it involves the questions of respect of
one’s property.
● For instance, stealing.
MORAL JUDGMENT
● When a person is an observer who makes
an assessment on the actions or
behaviour of someone.
● For instance, a friend of mine chooses to
steal from a store, and I make an
assessment that it’s wrong.
THE ETHICAL DIMENSION
OF HUMAN EXISTENCE:
SOURCES OF AUTHORITY
Several common ways of thinking about
ethics are based on the idea that the
standards of valuation are imposed by a
higher authority that commands our
obedience.
● LAW – one’s guide to ethical behavior
● POSITIVE LAW – refers to the different
rules and regulations that are posited or
put forward by an authority figure that
require compliance.
“Ethics? It is simple. Just follow
whatever the law says.”
LAW
Unethical acts as forbidden by the law:
Murder, theft, etc.
The law is enforced by way of a system of
sanctions administered through persons and
institutions, which all help in compelling us
to obey.
NOT forbidden by the law but ethically questionable:
Company → employees or applicants
The fact that one can make such a negative value
judgment of the practice where there is no violation of
the law is already a hint that one can look to
something beyond the law when making ethical
valuations.
Ex: A story of toddler who had been run over by a
couple of vehicle.
Perhaps, one should think of ethics in a
way that does not simply identify it with
obedience to the law.
RELIGION
“Love the Lord, Your God, therefore, & always
heed his charge: his statutes, decrees, and
commandments.” (New American Bible,
Deut 11:1)
We are presented with a more-or-less clear
code of prohibitions & many of these
prohibitions given by religion – “thou shall
not kill”, “thou shall not steal”, “thou shall not
commit adultery” – seem to intuitively
coincide with our sense of what ethics
should rightly demand.
RELIGION
- the idea that one is obliged to obey his
Creator in all things
- as a foundation for ethical values, this is
referred as divine command theory
- by listening to God & reading His writings,
an individual discovers how God wants her
to act
Religion is not simply prohibitive but also provides
ideals to pursue.
* be forgiving
* be loving
* help who have less
SUPREME AUTHORITY – who can inspire &
compel our obedience in a way that nothing else
can

“Ethics? It is simple. Just follow
whatever the religion says.”
CULTURE
DIVERSITY OF CULTURE
a. Aesthetic differences (Japanese art vs
Indian art)
b. Religious differences (Buddhism vs
Christianity)
c. Etiquette differences (conflicting
behaviors in dining practices)
However, multiplicity of religion requires the
believer to clarify his understanding of the
connection between ethics and God. Which
leads to – holiness.
The customary beliefs, social forms, and
material traits of a racial, religious, or social
group; the characteristic features of
everyday existence (such as diversions or a
way of life) shared by people in a place or
time.
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
It is the idea that a person's beliefs, values,
and practices should be understood based
on that person's own culture, rather than be
judged against the criteria of another.

“Ethics? It is simple. Just follow
whatever your culture says.”
C. Under CR, we realize that we are in no
position to render judgment on the
practices of even our own culture
D. We can only maintain the CR by following
the presumption of culture as a single
clearly-defined substance or as something
fixed & already determined.
It is sometimes thought that one should not
rely on any external authority to tell oneself
what the standards of moral valuation are
but should instead turn inwards.
However:
A. the argument of cultural relativism (CR) is
premised on the reality of difference
B. Under CR, we realize that we are in no
position to render any kind of judgment on
the practices of another culture
THE ETHICAL DIMENSION
OF HUMAN EXISTENCE:
SENSES OF THE SELF
SUBJECTIVISM (personal independence)
The starting point of subjectivism is the
recognition that the individual thinking
person (the subject) is at the heart of all
moral valuations.
In this, the individual is the sole determinant
of what is morally good or bad, right or
wrong:
● No one can tell me what is right or wrong.
● No one knows my situation better than
myself.
● It is good if I say it is good.
● I am entitled to my own opinion.
*The idea is that whatever or not the person
admits it, one’s actions are ultimately always
motivated by self-serving desires.
A psychological egoist would argue that a soldier
sacrifices his life for the sake of his country; only
in order to avoid the guilt he would have, if he did
not.
The phrase 'let them eat cake' can be termed
as psychological hedonism.
Every act of altruism is rejected as having a
selfish motive behind it, in psychological
egoism.
PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM
“Human beings are naturally self-centered, so all
our actions are always already motivated by self-
interest.”
*The ego or self has its desires & interests, and all
our actions are geared toward satisfying these
interest.
A particular form of psychological egoism is
'psychological hedonism', which projects that
all voluntary human actions are motivated by a
desire to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
Sigmund Freud's 'pleasure principle' is largely
based on this theory.
ETHICAL EGOISM
It differs to psychological egoism in that it
does not suppose all our actions are self-
serving instead, it prescribes that we should
make our own ends, our own interests, as the
single overriding concern.
 An ethical egoist would hold it morally right if
you helped in renovating a local sports
stadium than donate for a flood relief fund
The achievement of his own happiness is
elsewhere.
man’s highest moral purpose.
A private railroad making profit is running
more successfully than a nationalized railroad
in the benefit of the state, is an instance of
ethical egoism.

An ethical egoist would choose what he wants

as a career, rather than what his parents or
society wants. Activity
For instance, choosing art over the more #1
'sophisticated' profession of architecture.

Write a reflection paper with the documentary

that you have watched. Guide questions will
be provided to you.

You will not answer the question one by one.

Guide questions are just guide on how you will
formulate the content of your reflection paper.
 Guide Questions
1. What issue/s is/are being discussed in the
You will write at least 3 paragraphs explaining
documentary?
your opinions and insights.
2. Do you think these issues are important
matters in discussing ethics?
You may attach images.
3. How would you relate the concepts of
ethics and moral with the actions shown by
the prisoners in the documentary? You may
cite examples.

4. What do you think are the factors that

affects their decision making? You may refer
to our discussion on valuation.

Pre-Test Answer Key:

1. C
2. B
3. B
4. A
5. A